Chris Coward

Chris Coward is Senior Principal Research Scientist and Affiliate Associate Professor at the University of Washington Information School.

Chris studies how people engage with new information and communication technologies — their perceptions, interests, and challenges — with the aim of developing new ways for individuals and communities to achieve greater agency in their use of technology. He is particularly interested in populations who face barriers, both in the Global South and in wealthier communities. Much of his work is situated in public libraries where he uses participatory methods to co-design, test, and evaluate new interventions.

Many of Chris’ projects are rooted in the literacy fields — information, digital, media, civic. His current focus is misinformation, an area that has led him to reimagine new forms of building the knowledge and skills needed to better navigate misinformation. This pursuit led to a collaboration with game researchers and designers where he develops escape rooms and other games as an immersive medium for people to experience and build resistance to misinformation. As someone with extensive experience in diverse cultural contexts, Chris is working to adapt the game methodology to different populations, from Black communities to breast cancer patients, and different countries, all of which have unique relationships with misinformation.

Chris is also interested in civic engagement, especially among youth, and the ways that public libraries can cultivate civic consciousness and action. As many of the issues that motivate civic participation, from climate change to minority rights, are also those that generate significant misinformation, his work is primarily focused on this intersection. While on sabbatical at the University of Copenhagen during 2023-24 Chris will be exploring Nordic models of public libraries as places for fostering democratic values with plans to develop an escape room game for this context.

At the University of Washington Chris co-founded the Center for Internet Studies in 1999, which later became the Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA), a research center he directed until 2023 that explores the role of digital technologies in building more open, inclusive, and equitable societies. Under his leadership, TASCHA grew in size and stature with projects spanning more than 50 countries.

In 2019, Chris was one of five principal investigators to establish the Center for an Informed Public, a nexus for multidisciplinary research on misinformation and translating research into policy, technology design, curriculum development, and public engagement.